Celebrating Inspirational Mamas
Its International Women's Day and we want to celebrate the mums you have nominated as your inspirational mamas. Read their inspiring stories...
🚑Leila Wilkinson – The Pandemic Paramedic 🚑
The first of our three mums who we’ve selected as our inspirational mums is Leila, who was nominated by her friend Emma.
Leila, like many new mums, was pregnant during the pandemic and alongside her pregnancy continued to work throughout as a paramedic, helping many people in all manner of emergency circumstances.
In addition to this, she even found time for wild swimming in Scotland's rivers and lakes right up until her little boy James was born (🥶🥶🥶) Since having James she has tackled the ups and downs of motherhood along with James having trouble with some pretty nasty reflux. Not to mention dealing with her wedding being postponed because of the pandemic too.
According to Emma, Leila has taken all of this in her stride and still has time to give advice and a friendly supportive shoulder to her pals. So many mums have worked in such challenging circumstances over the last 2 years so I am thrilled to be able to recognise the work that Leila has done and give her a chance to treat herself a little too! ❤️
💪Helping other Mums get their mojo back💪
Our second winner Alecs was nominated by her client Mel. A PT and owner of the SweatyMama franchise in Abergavenny, Alecs started her journey as a pre and post natal fitness instructor after her son Leo was born and she felt like she had absolutely no connection to her body anymore. She was refused a 6 week check with a doctor and had no idea that going back to how she exercised before was just making things worse.
When she discovered post-natal exercise she found that her core and pelvic floor got stronger and she started to feel not only like herself again but stronger.
Wanting to help other women like her who were left totally in the dark about how to care for themselves post birth, she took a number of qualifications and started a SweatyMama Franchise, her classes now becoming so popular amongst local mums that there is often a waiting list to join! She gave her clients something to get up for during lockdown, taking her classes for new mums online and always leaves her mums feeling positive and motivated after a good workout.
Running a business alongside an active toddler is never easy but I love how Alecs is so determined to give back to new mums and ensure they don’t feel left in the dark about their bodies, as she was when she had her little boy.
🩸Laura – Campaigning for her little girl🩸
Laura is a mum of 2 gorgeous girls and was nominated by her friend Sinead. Just a few short weeks ago, having noticed her three year old was bruising easily, Laura took her to her GP for a check up. She was quickly admitted to A&E for tests that revealed her beautiful girl was suffering from bone marrow failure.
Her platelets, the cells that clot blood, were at 0 meaning that any slight knock could result in her suffering such severe internal bleeding, it could have been fatal.
After more tests, emergency surgery to fit an NG tube and a bone marrow aspiration, they discovered that Elsie has a rare blood disorder called Aplastic Anaemia where her bone marrow has failed to work. She can’t survive without transfusions of platelets and blood and needs to be on medication to help her with infections as she has no white cells in her body.
Laura has to give her 3 year old medications through a tube in her nose, face terrifying news of her eventually needing a bone marrow transplant and going through chemotherapy and also the possibility of having to put her 18 month old daughter through all that comes with being a donor.
While feeling entirely helpless and useless, Laura has decided to use her platform to highlight the symptoms and signs of this rare disease in order to raise awareness of the things people should take notice of. Along with this, she’s been raising awareness on how important it is to give blood, platelets and register for donating bone marrow and has already encouraged many people to do so.
After a blood transfusion saved the life of my own brother some years ago, I am passionate about donating blood and Laura’s commitment to raising awareness at such a difficult time is nothing short of admirable.
As well as showing your support by signing up to donate blood, please also show your support for her business Raisin and Bow. At a time when work is challenging around her daughter’s hospital appointments, your support of her small business would also be amazing. ❤️
